New York - The Islamic State in Egypt has claimed responsibility for the alleged downing of the Russian passenger plane that crashed Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula, with 224 people on board.
The radical group ISIS took on to Twitter to publicly claim responsibility for shooting down the Russian aircraft.
“Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to bring down a Russian plane in the Sinai province carrying more than 220 passengers who were all killed,” the statement of the extremist group said.
According to the ISIS tweet by its affiliate group Welayat Sinai, they allegedly shot down the aircraft it as a vengeful move, acting in retaliation to the Russian intervention in Syria.
“As you kill, you will be killed,” Welayat Sinai said implying their revenge against Russia, adding that “those who ally with them [Russians]” are not safe either on Egyptian territory or air space.
However, Egyptian authorities have denied the extremist group’s claims saying there is no evidence of the alleged terrorist attack as the aircraft’s altitude was too high for any missile to reach it, prior to its descent.
Russian Minister of Transportation told Australian News Network that ISIS claims “can’t be considered accurate”.
Although the cause of the crash has not been determined at the time of writing, Pilot Ayman Al-Mokamed who is in charge of the investigation said the plane crashed due to “technical difficulties”.
Flightradar24 tweeted that the “flight #7K9268 was descending with about 6000 feet per minute just before signal was lost”.
The Airbus A-321 crashed into the Sinai desert in northern Egypt, 23 minutes after leaving the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg, according to the Russian Embassy in Cairo.
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